By Appolos Christian
The Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), has warn government not to expect its members to accept any resolution on COVID-19 hazard allowances, decided in any meeting they are not involved.
Speaking at the occasion to mark this year’s World Biomedical Laboratory Science Day; tagged: Testing Times-Biomedical Laboratory Scientists Role in the Covid19 Pandemic, held in abuja on , observed every 15th of April, the National President of AMLSN, Prof. James Damen, conspicuously said; “Any resolution on hazard allowance that did not involve us during its negotiation will not be acceptable.”
“The Minister of Labour and Employment Sen. Chris Ngige, called a meeting to negotiate for hazard allowances and excluded us from the meeting. This is very unfair, injustice and unacceptable to us, in developed countries hazard allowances are paid based on the risk of exposure of the professionals while in Nigeria reverse is the case.
“My Association will resist the terms of agreement they arrived at since we are not party to the negotiation.”
Furthermore, the Laboratory Scientists said that government is not giving serious attention to the development of infrastructure to support scientists, adding that ordinarily baseline studies was supposed to precede the current Covid-19 vaccination taking place in the country to uncover any adverse effects on the populace.
According to Damen, some countries have reported that in some Covid-19 vaccine recipients blood cloth was observed, but Nigeria has not done a single research to further authentic the efficacy of the vaccines on the populace.
“In the wake of the pandemic, the Medical Laboratory Scientist showed their undying compassion for the patient by walking the path dreaded by many. While some were stigmatizing, the Medical Laboratory Scientist was on the search to collect samples from those who others feared to come close to, they indeed provided the needed specimen that guided public health actions.
“In the laboratories, the world couldn’t have known the strains we were dealing with, if not for the efforts of this unsung heroes who spent sleepless nights in the laboratories to provide evidence that guided policy makers in making key and timely decisions”.
